How to Make Friends & Influence Colonels
by Abydosorphan
Summary: Request One - Pairing: Sam Carter/Steven Caldwell (SG1-SGA crossover) Three Things You Want To See: "I've heard all of your other lovers have died.", "That's not technically true." (Does NOT have to be in response to the first quote! :D), eating/food Three Things You Do NOT Want To See: non-con, bdsm (at least nothing beyond slightly kinky), regrets
When Colonel Samantha Carter, USAF had invited Colonel Steven Caldwell, USAF to have dinner with her in a private setting, it had absolutely nothing to do with romantic interest and absolutely everything to do with trying to improve their rapport after she'd accepted the position of expedition leader of Atlantis. A position that she knew he had been after for far longer than she had ever considered herself in the running as an alternative.

The fact that he seemed a bit startled and confused by the invitation should have been her first clue that they were not on the same page.

When he'd insisted on picking her up at her house, she should have been suspicious.

When he showed up on her doorstep in a very attractive ensemble of khakis pants, a black fitted long-sleeved shirt with black leather jacket and flowers, she knew she was screwed.

She opened her front door, suddenly very self conscious of her toned-down pants suit and heels. "Steven."

"Samantha." He handed her the flowers, seemingly a bit more nervous than she would have expected. "Or would you prefer Sam?"

"Sam is fine." She looked down at the flowers, a bit unsettled about how to handle the situation. "I'll go put these in water, and then we can be on our way. You can come in for a moment if you'd like."

Caldwell followed her into the foyer and then into the living room while she made her way into the kitchen. "Lived here for a while, Sam?"

"About ten years, give or take minus the many trips… away, and my time spent in Nevada at R&D." She took a vase down from the shelf and brought it to the island counter.

"What are you going to do with it once you leave for your new assignment?"

"I haven't decided. I was thinking about subletting, but then I'd have to find a place for all my stuff. And then Cassie still has a lot of things that we moved in here." She unwrapped the flowers and arranged them in the vase before adding some water. "I might just wind up letting Vala crash here for a bit. Give her a chance to stretch her legs. Of course, then I might be afraid of what I'd come home to."

"Yes, that is one of the issues of letting friends come into your home."

Sam walked out of the kitchen carrying the vase and placed it in the middle of her mantle. "There. Thank you, Steven. That was very sweet."

"Well, I figured I didn't want to show up empty handed." His hands clasped tightly before him before falling to his sides. "So… ready to go?"

"Let me grab my purse." Sam headed toward her front door, grabbing her purse on the way and locking the door behind them. She was, once again, taken by surprise when Steven opened the passenger door for her.

The ride to the restaurant was rather quiet and uncomfortable and Sam found herself trying to figure out how to broach the reason for her invitation. She was still mulling it over when Steven pushed her chair in for her as she sat at the table.

"Have you eaten here before? I'm wondering what I should order."

Sam smiled. "The team and I have come here a few times. The steak is their specialty; though I would definitely suggest you keeping it to only one."

At his raised eyebrow, she continued. "It's a long, somewhat guarded story."

"That's a file I'll need to read."

Swallowing and putting her menu on the table, Sam decided that now was about as good a time as any to broach the subject. "That's actually a bit of what I wanted to talk about tonight. Well, not _that_ case, per se, but," she paused as she searched for appropriate wording, "career placement."

He was staring at her across the top of his menu.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm stepping on your toes. I wasn't looking for the position and I just want to make sure that there are no hard feelings between us."

Steven's face took on a completely confused look. "Um… about Atlantis?"

Sam nodded.

"Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you. I have to admit, Elizabeth Weir was a rather _different_ style of commander. I'm very interested in seeing how you make it your own. Sheppard, especially, is an interesting character there. But I was hoping that since we will be working fairly closely together there, we could get to know each other a bit better tonight."

The open-ended area in that statement made Sam wonder just where he wanted things to go, but she decided to just relax and enjoy the evening. Her main concern had been some unwanted friction between them. Since it seemed that wasn't the case, there was no reason for her to not enjoy herself a little.

"That sounds like a plan. I'm sure you've read my personnel file, so what else did you want to know?"

The waiter approached and took their orders. Sam noticed Steven watching her out of the corner of her eye and wondered just what she had opened herself up for. The waiter left and she noticed Steven take on a much bolder posture in his chair.

"There are some interesting rumors surrounding you."

Sam took a sip of water and regretted opening up this line of questioning. "Such as?"

"Well, scuttlebutt has it that there's some sort of curse surrounding you. Something about all of your lovers being dead."

Sam choked on her water and had to grab her napkin out of her lap before she wound up embarrassing herself in a far more tactile manner than his question had managed to. "Excuse me?"

"I've heard all of your other lovers have died."

She blinked a few times and tried to figure out the most diplomatic way to broach this subject. "That's not technically true. Though if you want to discuss interesting scuttlebutt, I heard that you once woke up next to a woman's dead body?"

"Well, yeah," he shifted in his seat, "I guess we've all had our fair share of interesting experiences along the course of our careers."

Sam smiled, "Some of us more so than others. It takes some getting used to, but most days, it's worth it."

Steven smiled, obviously relaxing from her rebuttal. "I can understand that." His hand reached across the table, gently tapping her hand. "I hope this will be one of the more worthwhile endeavors."

She smiled. It might not have been what she was expecting from the evening, but she'd learned over the years that sometimes you just needed to take things as they came. And if he seemed to have acquired a bit of a 'death wish' since his time as a host, well, she'd been there and done that, and maybe she could help him through it.


End file.
